ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday dismissed 15 petitions challenging the delimitation of union councils (UC) for Islamabad, paving the way for local government (LG) elections to be held according to the announced schedule.

An IHC division bench, consisting of Justice Noorul Haq N. Qureshi and Justice Aamir Farooq, heard the petitions.

The petitioners which included the PTI had challenged the delimitation in the federal capital on the grounds that the delimitation authority `overlooked` the mandatory legal requirements for delimiting 50 UCs of the federal capital.

According to the schedule announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP),polling for the local government elections is scheduled for November 30.

The process for these elections has begun, and the Election Commission of Pakistan will receive nomination papers between November 26 and November 29. The scrutiny of the nomination papers will be conducted between November 1 and November 4, and the final list of candidates with symbols will be issued on November 11.

In its written response, the ECP expressed the apprehension that any change at this stage after the announcement of the schedule would delay local government elections in the federal capital.

In the reply submitted before the IHC on identical petitions regarding local government elections in the federal capital, ECP stated that delaying activities at this stage or changing the delimitation of constituencies where local government elections were already scheduled would interfere with the election schedule.

A division bench heard the case where petitioners alleged that the Islamabad Local Government Act 2015 was marre d by lacunas.

The ECP response stated that the uniform-ity in population as well as the geographical compactness of the areas was taken into consideration while undertaking the process of delimitation.

The commission claimed that their prime objective was to hold local government elections to provide basic facilities at the residents` doorstep.

The reply stated that the writ petition filed by PTI did not point out any reason to set aside the delimitation of UCs, making it liable to be dismissed. It added that the ECP has complied fully with sections 6 and 7 of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Local Government Act 2015, as well as Supreme Court orders, and as such, the petitioners had no locus standi to file a writ.

It went on to state that the authority carried out the delimitation exercise as per the principles laid down.

During the course of the hearing, PTI counsel Raja Inam Ameen Minhas contended that according to a census conducted in 1998, 65 per cent of Islamabad`s population lives in urban areas, while the rest resides in rural areas.

He claimed that the delimitation officerignored the census while delimiting the UCs and indicated 17 UCs in urban Islamabad and 33 in rural Islamabad.

PTI`s petition alleged that such discrimination would benefit the ruling PML-N. It termed the delimitation a violation of Section 7 of the ICT Local Government Act 2015 because it would give an undue advantage to one political party over the rest.

The party requested that the court set aside the delimitation and direct the delimitation officer to carve out constituencies afresh.

Raja Shafgat Khan Abbasi, counsel for a petitioner, claimed that the delimitation authority did not inspect the UCs and did not hold any public hearings prior to carrying out the exercise.

He argued that the government had announced the local government elections without amending the relevant constitutional provisions.

Additional Attorney General Afnan Karim Kundi told the court that there was no constitutional bar on the federal government that could restrict it from holding elections in the federal capital.